• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Q&A

What rights do Pennsylvania employees have to inspect their personnel files?

12/03/2012
Q. What’s the law on letting employees review all their personnel files? Can we prevent it?

English-only rule: Is it legal?

12/03/2012
Q. Is it legal for our company to require employees to speak only English at work?

Is there anything that prevents us from reducing our employees’ hours?

12/03/2012

Q. Can we change employees’ work hours on short notice by altering their schedules? Also, we have a part-time employee who’s been employed for a few months working 32 hours a week. She’s preparing to return to work after recovering from a car accident. Can we reduce her work hours?

Must we favor disabled applicants?

12/03/2012

Q. If we have several qualified applicants for a job, are we required to select a qualified applicant with a disability over other applicants without a disability?

Can we put worker’s photo & info on our website?

11/29/2012
Q. On our company website, we post employees’ pictures and a brief overview of their education and professional background. Recently, an employee asked us to remove her information for security reasons. She fears someone may google her name and find out where she works and the area she lives. Thoughts?

Sick-day details on company calendar: Too risky?

11/20/2012

Disclosing on a company calendar that an employee is out because of sickness or FMLA leave is problematic. An employer should never disclose that absences are due to medical or health reasons. You must maintain the confidentiality of such information.

How much leave notice does CFRA require?

11/16/2012

Q. An employee just notified HR he would like to take immediate leave under the California Family Rights Act. Can we require more notice?

Should we be paying overtime to employee who receives after-hours phone calls?

11/16/2012

Q. One of our office managers regularly receives after-hours calls from our landlord about building management issues. Are we required to pay her overtime compensation for the resulting hours she works over eight in one day or over 40 in one week?

What does California’s new law mean for our dress and grooming policy?

11/16/2012

Q. We would like to enforce a strict dress and grooming code in our company. Are we required to exempt from our policy employees whose faiths call for them to dress or groom in a specific way?

Are there alternatives to noncompetes for employees who work in California?

11/15/2012

Q. We have employees who live and work in Cali­­for­­nia. We get frustrated that we are not allowed to have them sign a noncompete agreement. Is there anything we can do?